Grant PUD Commissioners pitched in the first, ceremonial shovels full of dirt on Aug. 26 to break ground for Grant PUD’s new Ephrata Service Center, a major milestone that will prepare this 87-year-old public utility with the space, agility and facilities to safely and more efficiently respond to day-to-day operations, maintenance work, connection requests and emergent outages well into the future, the Washington State PUD reported.
Spades dug in during a short ceremony with area dignitaries and PUD staff on a small portion of the new center’s 34-acre property. Construction will happen through 2027.
“We as a commission are excited for this,” Commission President Terry Pyle told the audience. “It will provide great work environments, both physically and for team building. This will be a more modern, state-of-the-art facility, with better spaces and places.”
“It has been such an adventure,” added Fallon Long, Grant PUD’s vice president of Shared Services, who thanked the commissioners, Grant PUD executive leadership, staff and a host of project partners for their collaboration. “This is a huge milestone for the PUD to serve our customers more efficiently. We’re building a modern service center that will take us into the next 50 years.”
Service centers house the Grant PUD mail rooms, materials yards, transportation and facilities shops, warehouses, electric shops, line departments and fueling islands. They're critical for the reliable and efficient operation of Grant PUD. The Ephrata Service Center will serve the northwestern part of the county, the PUD noted.
The existing service center, in downtown Ephrata, was built in the mid-1970s and is now aged, out of compliance with modern building requirements and too confined by the small city and train tracks that surround it.
Grant PUD’s telecom and fiber-optic shops will remain at the old site until a new Moses Lake Service Center is operational. Grant PUD is considering its options for the old downtown Ephrata site.
Grant PUD is planning, designing and constructing the new service center using the “Progressive Design Build” project-delivery system.
It fosters better collaboration, efficiency and cost savings under a single contract with the Design-Build team of Turner & Townsend Heery, Integrus Architecture, engineering and design firm Huitt Zollars and Absher Construction, the PUD said.
Grant PUD purchased the 34-acre site from Grant County for $455,000. It will contain 316,822 square feet of buildings, parking structures, fuel island and storage.
The total project cost will be finalized in October.
Plans for a new Moses Lake Service Center are already in the works, followed by a new Ephrata headquarters building. The timelines and costs for these projects are yet to be determined.
